Category Archives: GNOME

GNOME 3 – The Next Generation Desktop is optimized for speed and productivity. If you haven’t installed the Gnome Shell in Ubuntu 11.10, then you must give it a try – because by default you are using the unity interface of Gnome 3 instead of Gnome Shell (Latest Version : 3.2). Gnome 3 has arrived with lot of exciting and innovative features that you can expect from a modern desktop. This post is dedicated to provide some cool keyboard shortcuts – which will further help you in maximizing the speed as well as in customization.

The keyboard shortcuts will work not only with Ubuntu 11.10 but also with other Linux distributions running Gnome3. I’ve already covered a post about unity keyboard shortcuts in Ubuntu 11.10, but this will focus on Gnome Shell (although some shortcuts may be common for both).

Top 10 most useful Keyboard shortcuts for Gnome Shell

Alt+Tab : Pop Up Application Switcher

Alt+Shift+Tab : Similar to above but in reverse order

Alt+F2 : Pop up command dialog, typically helpful for launching apps

Alt+F2 then type ‘r‘ and hit Enter to reload Gnome Shell Theme

Alt+F1 or System Key (Windows Key) : overview of desktop (same when you slide the mouse to top left corner (Hot Corner))

Ctrl+Alt+Tab : Pop up Accessibility switcher

Ctrl+Shift+Alt+R : Start and end screencast recording

Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down Arrow key : Used to switch between workspaces

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Up/Down Arrow key : Moves the current window to a different workspace

Ctrl+Enter : Launch a shell command in new Terminal window

How to add a custom Keyboard Shortcut ?

Go to System Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts to view the existing shortcuts or to add one or edit the existing one as you want.

I think that – Ubuntu 11.10 is going to rock with Gnome Shell interface (there was some critical compatibility problem with unity desktop, in earlier version). Unity also got a lot of innovative features (so I like it) but I love Gnome 3 (with Gnome Shell). After installing Ubuntu 11.10, install some necessary apps first then you may want to customize the login screen or themes. If you are a regular reader of this blog – then you might have noticed that – I’ve already covered few cool and best collection of Gnome 3 themes – i.e GTK3 and Gnome shell themes but in this article, I’m going to focus on Gnome Shell theme.

I’ve tried a lot of cool and beautiful themes in Ubuntu 11.10 but here is the list of my favorite Top 10 – cool and best gnome shell themes, that you may want to try. All are good looking, Fun and Amazingly great artworks.

Best Gnome Shell Themes

1. Zukitwo

currently, It’s my most favorite Gnome Shell theme on Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot, I’m using beta version, stable will be out within few days). It looks great! The theme is available not only as Gnome Shell Theme but also as GTK 3 theme and GTK 2 theme, so even if you are not using Gnome shell or Ubuntu, you can try it in older version of Ubuntu. The theme has been updated frequently and the bugs has been fixed actively to work seamlessly.

8. Orta

9. Adwaita White

10. MinimaZero

How to install Gnome Shell Themes in Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) ?

You can install it either manually (lets go with it) or using ‘gnome shell extension’. First, extract the theme packages and copy the gnome-shell directory to the usr/share/gnome-shell directory. Then rename the ‘theme’ directory to something else – e.g theme_default. Now, rename the gnome-shell directory (you’ve copied) to theme. You’re done. Simply Reload the Gnome Shell Theme either by – press ALT+F2 then type r and hit enter or logging out from the current session will also reload the theme when you will be back.

As you know – Ubuntu 11.10 beta 1 released, with a lot of improvements e.g it’s lighter && faster than it’s previous version (I mean – Ubuntu 11.04 – Natty Narwhal) and changes. Now it’s time for a quick preview, basically a screenshot tour for some of its exciting/cool features or improvements. Since it’s the beta release – there are lot of bugs (believe me it’s very annoying, I use Ubuntu 10.10 for general purpose), so obviously you aren’t going to install it on production machines. On the other hand if you want to do some experiments – then have a look at the screenshots.

Gnome shell is the user interface for Gnome Desktop Environment, after the version 3.0 i.e they are based on GTK 3.0, written in C and Javascript. Ubuntu 11.10 beta final version was released in Oct 2011, and if you are an enthusiastic Ubuntu user, who love experiments; then probably you are running Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot), Right? I think so (sure for desktop environment).

Ubuntu 11.10 has Gnome 3 by default, although the default desktop environment named as Ubuntu – is basically Unity, running on Gnome 3.1.5. If you have low graphics resources then better go to Unity 2D (The fallback mode); Gnome classic desktop (version 2.*) has been completely removed. So if you want to try Gnome shell, then don’t worry, it’s very simple (unlike the Gnome shell in Ubuntu 11.04 where it might have broken your unity desktop). You just need to install Gnome shell (The desktop UI for Gnome 3.0) from Terminal or Ubuntu Software Center or Synaptic Package Manager (Oh! ..Synaptic package Manager has been removed.. but you can get it back if you want – synaptic package manager on ubuntu 11.10) ie now Gnome shell is available in official package repository so you don’t need to use any PPA.

Installing Gnome shell on Ubuntu 11.10 – Oneiric Ocelot

Open Terminal (hit CTRL+ALT+T ) and type the following command.

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

[Alternatively, you can also install the package from Ubuntu Software Center, just search for ‘Gnome shell’ and click on install. You are Done!]

That’s All. If you have any problem, then let us know (because currently it’s in beta version so there might be some bugs, final is coming on Oct 13).

In Gnome 3, changing the themes and or customizing the look of your favorite theme is not so easy as it was in Gnome 2.3. So if you are wondering – how to install and manage theme in Ubuntu 11.10, then here is one great application that might help you – it’s Gnome Tweak Tool that will allow you to tweak the default Gnome theme. To install Gnome Tweak Tool, open a terminal and execute the following command(s) –

Gnome 3 is the latest version (released in last month) of Gnome Desktop, with totally different (from the previous versions) User Interface and components. Gnome 3.0 has been developed from scratch and claims to be ‘The Next Generation Desktop’. The main goal of Gnome 3 is to allow users to focus on the task with less interruption or distraction, in an elegant environment (look, feel and apps). This post is written for users who are looking for some cool and beautifulthemes for the Gnome 3 desktop. You can also install Gnome shell 3 on Ubuntu 11.04 via PPA although it breaks the Unity and performance is very poor; in next release of Ubuntu i.e Ubuntu 11.10 (code named as Oneric Ocelot), it may be installed along with Unity.

Due to arrival of Gnome shell (although Gnome 3.0/Gnome shell is compatible with the previous versions) the applets, Widgets, Gadgets and Dock (Windows List, Maximize or Minimize Buttons etc..) are no longer available but, in fact a lot of other useful features are available such as Dash (some sort of launcher container which allows easier access to frequently used programs and currently running applications), new style of Panel,system status area, Window Picker, Search (System or Internet resources e.g Wikipedia ) etc; so a number of Gnome 2 features seems absolute in Gnome 3.0.

Due to lot of innovative features, Gnome 3.0 appears to be the desktop of Future (at least for Linux based operating system such as Ubuntu; Fedora 15 and OpenSuse has already released with Gnome 3 Desktop). Here is my favorite collection of top 10 Gnome 3 themes (elegant) and I hope you will like it!